This invention relates to liquid dispensing devices, and more particularly, to a bottle for dispensing a diagnostic reagent in droplets.
In the typing and testing of blood, very small and controlled quantities of a diagnostic reagent are added to a known quantity of blood in a test tube, the reaction of the reagent and blood is noted, and a characteristic of the blood is thus determined. Using a series of such tests with different reagents permits complete typing of the blood. Standardized test procedures have been developed and require the reagent to be dispensed as droplets with there being 20-25 droplets per milliliter (ml) of reagent.
The reagents can be quite expensive and are provided in small bottles which are referred to as BBR bottles (blood bank reagent bottles). The BBR bottles are typically made of glass, have a large mouth, and include a glass eye-dropper-like device for dispensing the reagent on a droplet-by-droplet basis.
The glass bottle is fragile, is subject to breakage during shipment and use, and when open, may be tipped over and the contents spilled. Furthermore, the number of droplets of reagent dispensed by the eye-dropper can vary due to variations in the geometry of the eye-dropper (e.g. orifice diameter, etc.) resulting from manufacturing techniques. It is also believed that the surface tension between the reagent and the eye-dropper surface may vary from reagent to reagent, which variation can also result in variations in the number of droplets per ml of reagent.
It is therefore an object of this invention to minimize bottle breakage and spillage.
It is another object of this invention to uniformly control the number of droplets of reagent dispensed to between 20-25 droplets/ml.
In using the present bottles, a technician may open a series of different BBR bottles for dispensing different reagents into test tubes. During testing (1) the technician may rest the dropper on the countertop and then return the dropper to the bottle; (2) he may touch the interior of the test tube with the eye-dropper; or (3) he might inadvertently return the dropper into a different reagent bottle. Each of the foregoing acts could result in contamination of the reagent or cross-contamination of test specimens which, in turn, could result in erroneous test results.
It is thus another object of this invention to provide a reagent dispensing system which minimizes or eliminates problems of contamination or cross-contamination.
Also during testing, it is possible that reagent bottles may be left open for substantial periods of time. By leaving the bottle open, it is possible that airborne contaminants could enter the reagent or that the bottle could be spilled. Furthermore, if the bottle is left open for prolonged lengths of time, the reagent on the dropper may dry to form a crust on the dropper. This is sometimes referred to as encrustation. It appears that the bottle is left open as a matter of convenience, since the cover is a separate piece.
It is thus another object of this invention to provide a construction wherein the cover is a part of the bottle so that closing the bottle after use is convenient.
Numerous plastic dispensing bottles are known in the prior art. These bottles generally are for the dispensing of liquids, such as detergents, cleaners and the like. Furthermore, hinges for positioning the closures on a cap or container are also known in the art. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,289,877; 3,720,979; and 3,933,271 disclose such hinged containers. Food coloring dispensers are available which includes an inverted and conically shaped nozzle that allows the coloring agent to be dispensed as droplet. However, none of the foregoing bottles provide for the accurate metered dispensing of liquid on a droplet-by-droplet basis and the freedom of contamination and the convenience sought in the medical field. In the medical field, containers have been developed for permitting withdrawal of liquid from a container and into a syringe. See for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,642,064 and 3,940,003. However, such containers are intended for a single use with all of the liquid being withdrawn at one time, not for the dispensing of such liquid on a droplet-by-droplet basis and such devices do not provide for closure and reuse of the container.
Thus the prior art does not disclose systems which provide the desired features and meet the foregoing objects. Those objects will become apparent from the following description and appended claims.